A vocal minority of Chelsea fans will be imitating Chicken Little on Wednesday as they moan about the club’s issues during this downtick in form. Alas, the sky is not falling. Context is as important in this situation as any. The Blues traveled to Turin missing their two best players (N’Golo Kante and Mason Mount), as well as a number of other important contributors in Reece James and Christian Pulisic. When analyzing the poor performances of late, those factors need to be taken into account. Nevertheless, this is not the football that reigning Champions League winners play.
Chelsea looked utterly clueless—to put it nicely—against Juventus. The Old Lady set up in a low block, happy to sit back and concede the majority of possession against the English giants. The Blues played right into their hands. Thomas Tuchel’s men drove forward with moderate pace and little urgency, seemingly coming to a halt once they spotted the 18-yard box. Chelsea was late to come out of the dressing room at halftime and the hosts made it pay with the decisive goal 11 seconds into the second half. One side executed its plan to perfection and the other, well, did not. It’s difficult to carry out a plan if there isn’t one in place though.
Chelsea looked completely clueless in its 1-0 defeat away at Juventus in the Champions league
The Blues picked one helluva time to start stinking up the pitch. After a rocking start to the season, Chelsea’s performances of late have looked flat. Tuchel’s side hasn’t had a solid first half showing in over a month when it played Arsenal off the pitch at the Emirates. Questions have arisen about the typical month of poor results coming early this year (as opposed to in the winter months), and they are definitely warranted. It’s perfectly normal for teams to go through rough patches, but the Blues’ issues are the same every season.
Chelsea paid homage to Maurizio Sarri at the Allianz Stadium—a fitting location for said tribute, seeing as he’s the former manager of both clubs—on Wednesday. The Blues returned to their Sarri-ball roots as, for the first time since the Italian roamed the touchline at Stamford Bridge, they looked horrendous in possession for an entire 90 minutes. Chelsea controlled the ball for 70 percent of the contest, mustering up just one shot on target. The Blues sluggishly and carelessly kicked the ball around in the Juventus half for the entirety of the game. There was no movement in the final third, nor was there any creativity. The absence of someone like Mount undoubtedly took its toll. Nevertheless, Chelsea should have been able to break down the Old Lady with the likes of Kai Havertz, Romelu Lukaku and Hakim Ziyech in the starting XI.
The aforementioned issues have existed for years in SW6. Players and managers have been swapped out more times than anyone would care to either admit or count, so the solution is obviously much deeper. If Tuchel wants to be the Blues’ leader for years to come he’ll need to do what his predecessors could not. Chelsea needs to buck this trend of putting together a string of sloppy showings or risk another sub-par campaign. The German gaffer will be given time to ride out this storm. The board—unlike in years past—is not the problem. Tuchel will have to face the music though as the Premier League and Champions League are relentless. If this form continues, the Blues will quickly find themselves behind the true trophy challengers.
Juventus now sits atop Group H as the Blues face the grim possibility of being bounced from the group for the second time in their history right after winning the competition. Could the ghost of 2013 come back to haunt Chelsea? It’s unlikely. However, the Blues look horrendous two games into the tournament. They were outclassed by the low block of Juventus and only a flash of brilliance from Lukaku saved them against a frustrated Zenit. Simply put, things need to turn around quickly at Chelsea or it will begin to fall behind.
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